Creating Shared Value: An Improved Social Responsibility Concept?

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Roskilde

University

Semester Project

Fall 2013

Department of Business Studies and Communication Authors: -Anders Brønd Christensen Student no. 46544 -Arjan Strub Student no. 53421 -Adnana Oana Cucu

Student no. 53010 -Maria Grabowska Student no.: 47386 Supervisor: -Niels Nolsøe Grünbaum

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CREATING SHARED VALUE

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1. Abstract

This study focuses on progress in the joint consideration of the needs of business and the needs of society. More specifically, the paper discusses the Creating Shared Value (CSV) framework (introduced by Porter and Kramer, 2006, 2011). Whilst the framework has been described as a ground-breaking approach, different from previous conceptualization, its diffusion also presents apparent similarities with the patterns of managerial fads and fashion.

The following research focuses on investigating how a small chain hotel can increase value returns by introducing CSV into its business model.

Examination of patterns and incentives in a socially responsible business has been completed through a study case on Guldsmeden hotel located in Copenhagen, Denmark. The insights into the hotel are developed based on the primary and secondary data. The primary data has been collected by conducting semi-structured interview with the founder and Public Relations responsible of Axel Guldsmeden hotel. As secondary data reviews from www.tripadvisor.com and customers’ survey piloted by the hotel have been used to gain an overview what features add value to the business from the customers’ perspective.

After extensive research and analysis the conclusion follow that a small chain business has a fair chance to successfully implement Creating Shared Value concept into its business model and have a meaningful impact on the society outside of its financial limitations.

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1. Introduction

1.1. Problem area

Pollution, waste spills, oil spills, global warming, child labour, malnutrition, poverty are just a few of the current environmental or social issues that are often at the centre of attention of mass media, activist groups like local or global environmental and human rights organizations, of various ministries etc.

In recent years, private enterprises have received a great deal of the blame for the environmental damage by different actors, such as the United Nations1, Principles for Responsible Investment (PRI)2 and Occupy Wallstreet3. As a response to this external pressure, businesses have turned to various types of initiatives that would improve their environmental performance or responsibility towards their stakeholders. These initiatives that adhere to the term Corporate Social Responsibility4 (CSR), could vary from corporate codes of conduct, to donations to “good causes”, reduction in CO2 emissions and many others.

However, the two influential Harvard professors, Michael Porter and Mark Kramer, have in recent years argued that CSR, in the way it is currently being implemented, is a peripheral concern of businesses, and for that reason its benefits are not fully exploited (Porter and Kramer, 2011:4). Instead, they propose the idea of adopting a “Creating Shared Value” (CSV) approach which turns the social and/or the environmental responsible initiatives in the firm’s mission and embeds them in the core processes. Porter and Kramer claim that through a careful strategic planning of CSV, the firm can

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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-24292615 or full IPPC report

http://www.climatechange2013.org/images/uploads/WGIAR5_WGI-12Doc2b_FinalDraft_All.pdf

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http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2010/feb/18/worlds-top-firms-environmental-damage, or full UNPRI report http://www.unpri.org/viewer/?file=files/6728_ES_report_environmental_externalities.pdf

3_{http://occupywallst.org/} 4

Corporate Social Responsibility is a corporate initiative to assess and take responsibility for the company's effects on the environment and impact on social welfare. The term generally applies to company efforts that go beyond what may be required by regulators or environmental protection groups.

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5 also gain economical value by addressing the needs and challenges of the society, resulting in a shared value for company and society alike.

Being a fairly new concept, we have found very little academic research on the topic of CSV, and a lot of the published material stems from these two authors. This intrigued us in delving deeper into the subject. Porter and Kramer have repeatedly tried to provide evidence of the possibilities of increasing value returns through CSV by giving examples of large companies that have successfully engaged in CSV (Nestle, Unilever, GE and many more). However, there has been no exploration into how small and medium size5 companies (SME’s) with more limited resources (financial, human, experience, time etc.) can implement CSV, which has in turn sparked our interest in the subject. Furthermore, as SMEs are in many ways the drivers for growth6, CSV needs to appeal to these firms as well, in order to reach its full potential.

Because the CSV paradigm is quite new, it is highly possible that many companies have not heard about it. Therefore, it is also likely that companies might exist who have successfully implemented a CSV approach as an integral activity in the business, without being aware of the specific terminology. In our pursuit to answer these questions, we have chosen to focus on the small Danish hotel chain, Guldsmeden7 (see company description in section 2 of this report). This choice is due in part because we see the hotel industry as a highly competitive industry, where many hotels have sharply defined CSR profile. Having an innovative approach to social responsibility through CSV could therefore help to differentiate a given hotel chain from its competitors. Secondly, the fact that Hotel Guldsmeden is certified as one of the most environmentally friendly hotel chains in Denmark8, indicated that this hotel might provide insights about how CSV can be implemented by small companies in general.

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Both in terms of number of employees and yearly revenue

6_{http://ec.europa.eu/enterprise/policies/sme/facts-figures-analysis/index_en.htm} 7

http://guldsmedenhotels.com/

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The only one in Denmark to be awarded the Green Globe certification for sustainable tourism: http://greenglobe.travel/category/denmark/

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1.2. Purpose

CSV promises to be a strategy to pursue greater economic value, but it can be discussed to what extent this concept brings novelty to the idea of social responsibility, and to what degree it can be implemented by small companies. This is why, apart from getting a better understanding of the CSV concept and its whole value creation process, our aim for this project is to also explore if a small company can do more than CSR to create meaningful value returns for the society and the environment, as well as for itself. We hope that the analysis around Guldsmeden Hotels can become a learning point for the hotel industry in general, and indeed any firm that is interested in achieving sustainable value returns. The starting point of this research will be taken from the following problem formulation and working questions:

1.3. Problem formulation

To what extent can a small hotel chain increase the overall value returns of their business by implementing Creating Shared Value (CSV) into their business model?

a. What is value and how measurable is it?

Firstly, a deeper look into the concept of value will be explored, in order to map the different perspectives of how different companies might perceive value and thus how they are incentivized into implementing CSV or other forms of social responsibility. This chapter will be finishing into a discussion of whether value can be measured and if yes, how?

b. What is CSV and how did the concept develop?

Following, we will try to look deeper into what the concept of CSV includes, and how the concept has developed. This first chapter will not only be descriptive, but also analytical in trying to identify how CSV might give new insights into the field of social responsibility in general.

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c. What are the incentives for “Guldsmeden” hotel to be socially responsible?

As a way to start analysing the process of implementing CSV activities, by taking the example of Guldsmeden Hotels, we are interested to investigate what possible motivations has the hotel had in its Social Responsible (SR) activities, and whether profit maximization has been the sole reason or not. d. How does Guldsmeden’s business model align to social and environmental responsibility

values?

Once the incentives for being SR have been found, the analysis becomes more concrete by looking at how Guldsmeden Hotel has implemented its social responsible initiatives and what changes in its business model had to be made accordingly.

e. Has Guldsmeden Hotel encountered any obstacles in implementing their socially and environmental responsible initiatives and if yes, how have they overcome them?

Naturally, reshaping the organization and activities to be more sustainable and social responsible has led to encountering various obstacles. These will be researched as well because they can be good learning points for other hotels in doing CSV.

f. Can other small size hotels increase their overall value returns by utilizing the positive experience of Guldsmeden Hotel?

An analysis of Guldsmeden’s total value returns will be conducted, so as to give an indication of whether it is possible to attain greater value through approaching SR (or CSV) initiatives.

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8 Figure 1: Project structure/phases

1.4. Interpretation

Value is a simple word, covering a multitude of different meanings. In this project we will refer to different definitions of the term value, to provide the reader with an understanding of the many ways corporations affect their surroundings. Primarily we will focus on financial, environmental and social value. These three types of values are also the constituents of what we understand as overall value returns that a company can produce through its activities.

Of these three, social value is by far the most ambiguous term. Social value is the impact a given organization has on their stakeholders9, be it positive or negative. As we will expand upon in chapter 4, this definition has a number of shortcomings, as it does not provide a readily usable hierarchy of how this impact can be measured nor does it provide a demarcation in terms of the time frame in which this impact should be measured. These problem areas will create the basis of the discussion in chapter 4.

Like the concept of value, social responsibility is a term that can have a multitude of meanings, depending on the emphasis of responsibility. While some liberalists, like Milton Friedman (1970:2), argued that only people and not organizations can have responsibilities, many corporations today

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9 have a formalized description of how they perceive their role in society. More than that, different initiatives are being taken so as to benefit certain stakeholders, and they can be directed either towards social or environmental causes.

Creating Shared Value (CSV) is a stand-alone concept within the field of social responsibility. It is fundamental to this view that societal and environmental gains can and should be achieved in ways that will help maximize the profit of a given organization utilizing this approach (Porter and Kramer, 2011:6). Therefore, we will recognize CSV as the pursuit of ethical or altruistic goals set by an organization that seek to gain a financial or competitive advantage through the realization of these goals.

The term business model refers to a part of a company’s business strategy which defines the main ways in which a business creates value for its stakeholders, and it includes aspects such as customer value proposition (offerings, target customer, purpose), core strategies and activities, strategic resources, partnership network (Hammel, 2000; Johnson, Christensen & Kagermann, 2008).

1.5. Delimitations

Taking into consideration the resources for this project, there will be some important limitations around it.

First and foremost, the main purpose has been to explore the concept of CSV and its degree of novelty, which means that other related approaches to social responsibility such as Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR), Triple Bottom Line (TBL), Blended Value (BV) will not be dealt with in depth. A broad and general introduction of these concepts will however be proposed to the reader, either through footnotes or explicitly in the paper if a more detailed description is needed. As the aim is to give the reader an understanding of how CSV differs from these other concepts, we will also give a closer look into the characteristics of these approaches with the purpose of comparing them with CSV.

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10 At the same time, we will assume that all commercial enterprises are founded on the idea of profit maximization, so as to not to deviate from the main purpose of the project with detailed discussions about the extent to which the idea of maximizing profits contradicts social responsibility initiatives. Furthermore, there are geographical limitations as well. As the interest revolves around smaller companies, we do not focus on obstacles that might occur for larger, global companies implementing CSV.

Lastly, we will analyse how the approach to social responsibility creates value for Guldsmeden Hotels only, without into taking account other possible hotels that strive to be sustainable. This is because, as it will be mentioned in the next section, our perspectivist angle of research. Furthermore, since the hotel chain constitutesof 7 different hotels base not only in Denmark, and because most of the information obtained from the two interviewees revolved around Axel Guldsmeden10, our analysis will keep this hotel in focus and refer to the hotel chain only when relevant. Moreover, it needs to be pointed out from the beginning, that this analysis is very dependent on the data provided by the company, which can seem limited compared to what it would be needed to have the full picture.

1.6. Philosophy of science

The purpose of this project is not to give a definitive answer to the question of whether social responsibility in business is the optimal strategy in every business, but rather to try to get a better understanding of the concepts, of how and why things happen the way they do. The starting assumption is that in different contexts, the application of either CSR or CSV can have different consequences because the implementation depends on many variables: ambitions, management, resources, level of knowledge, skills, country, political or other external factors etc. In other words, we could say that each company’s view on the impact its activities has upon itself and the society very much depends on the specific framework of time, background, culture etc. that each company is subject to.

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11 At the same time, the view on value creation is not only relative to the given context, but also to the person trying to make an interpretation of it: a manager can view and appreciate value creation differently from a shareholder, a competitor, a customer, a governmental institution, an environmentalist etc. Because the project is dealing with such a complex concept as “value”, it is difficult, if not impossible, to strive for an absolute knowledge that does not depend on a certain perspective. This is why the epistemological position in the research will be perspectivist, meaning that it will not aim to formulate general laws or define an universal truth(Bitsch & Pedersen, 2011: 165; Hatch, 2013: 13-15) of which option is best, but rather to analyse the different concrete perspectives of value creation. Using the process of deduction proposed by Bryman, we will test the theory put forth by Porter and Kramer that CSV improves upon the concept of CSR through the case study on Guldsmeden Hotels (Bryman, 2012: 24).

The analysis will be done around situationism, what is a method that takes as point of departure assumption stating that the relation between context and action is a process where the medium is interaction (Bitsch & Pedersen, 2011:171). We believe that the positive/negative experiences of the organizations (micro-level) that have implemented CSR/CSV are influenced by the context in which they take place. By that, the ontological belief is that the existence of these realities is independent of our knowledge of it, but in trying to understand them, the interpretations cannot fully be made independent on our pre-judgements (Bitsch & Pedersen, 2011:142). This position can make the findings deviate from a strict pattern and thus seem less credible to the reader. However, this is a risk that it is assumed when taking a position of perspectivism in the research.

1.7. Data collection/methods

This paper relies on both primary and secondary data. The primary data will consist of a semi-structured interview with two key persons from the Guldsmeden Hotel chain, the owner and the PR and marketing manager in the Guldsmeden hotel chain (see the full interview transcript in Appendix 1). To juxtapose the data collected in the interview, we use secondary data from customer reviews on the website www.tripadvisor.com, which gives us an indication of which features add perceived value

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12 to the hotel from the point of view of the customer (see the main findings of the Tripadvisor review analysis in Appendix 2).

The reason for choosing this research method is the need for getting internal outlook of strategies, purposes, incentives and obstacles of running a socially responsible business. The semi-structured interview method leaves the interviewees the time and room to elaborate on the topics that they thinks are relevant. It also gives us, as interviewers, the possibility to follow up on new topics as they appear throughout the interview, and that might provide relevant information for the project. In other words, we had a prepared guide with fairly specific topics to be covered during the interview, so the interviewee has a great range of leeway of how to answer the questions (Bryman, 2012: 471). By conducting the interview we expect to obtain insights on the customers’ profile, the chain’s definition of social and environmental value, on its social and environmental initiatives, on the relevant incentives, implementation process and obstacles in doing so, as well as the value returns for the hotel. Also we believe that this interview will provide us with knowledge on the internal organization of the company, which will be relevant for the analysis.

The interview was held with both of the Guldsmeden Hotel’s representatives at the same time. Ideally we would have conducted the interviews separately, however they insisted on being interviewed together in order to complement each other’s knowledge.

While it had been preferable to conduct two separate interviews, since the aim of conducting the interviews was not to get phenomenological insight into the respondents’ daily lives in the hotel, but rather to gather information on the hotel chain in general, it was decided to agree to the wishes of the informants. This does however provide some limitations, as we cannot exclude the possibility that the informants influenced each other during the interview process in a way that is counter-productive to the aim of the interview.

From the interview we expect to further our knowledge about Guldsmeden hotels and gain insights from the top management of the group. Firstly, we aim to capture the core values and the business plan by asking about a historical overview of the hotels as well as the customers’ profile. This will lead

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13 us to find out whether there has been a radical change from the beginning in terms of sustainability or if the care for environmental and society has been the focus for the chain from the beginning. Furthermore, we wish to expand on the environmental and social activities performed by Guldsmeden hotels. The objective is to find out if they have past initiatives that they have had to abandon and future ones they have planned. This will lead us to understand the obstacles they might have found, both internal and external, and how they might overcome them if at all possible.

In addition, we plan to get insight into how the group is managed and organised to understand how the social or economical activities are chosen and then implemented. We would also like to elaborate on the franchising of a hotel to apprehend how Guldsmeden hotels make sure that these franchised hotels implement all the activities set by the hotel chain.

In the process from designing to analysing the interview we followed 7 phases of research design proposed by Kvale and Brinkmann, thematizing, designing, interviewing, transcribing, coding, verifying and reporting.

The first step in the process ‘’thematizing’’. This is the process of narrowing the field of research by answering the question of what is going to be studied, and what is the puzzling part about the topics (Lofland, 1995:78). Our themes, apart from the introduction that should always be present were: Organisation, Customers, Environmental and Social value.

“Designing” is the process of choosing a fitting methodological technique. In the case of this project we chose the semi-structured interview that, as mentioned before, gives the interviewee the space to elaborate on the subjects that are found to be relevant.

The interview itself is the next phase. Some of the theorists on the subject, for example Kvale (1996), strongly suggest videotaping the interview, because the visual aspects can give a richer perspective for the analysis. However, as the interview aims to give insight into the hotel chain, and is not primarily concerned with the two informants, we have chosen not to do this.

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14 The fourth phase is transcription. As Kvale says, "[t]ranscripts are not copies or representations of some original reality, they are interpretative constructions that are useful tools for given purposes’’ (Kvale, 1996:165). In accordance with this, while transcribing the record, we decided to disregard all irrelevant sounds made by the interviewees e.x ‘’mhmm, eee’’ etc., and correct the grammar mistakes, in order to make the transcript easily understandable for the reader. However we have strived to influence the transcripts at little as possible, being aware of our possible bias as the researchers who conducted the interview.

The most crucial part of getting an outcome of the conducted interview is “coding”. In the case of this research study it has been decided that the transcript of the interview will be coded through thematic analysis. The aim of this method is to construct an index of themes and subthemes in order to gain a holistic overview on the interviewee responses throughout the interview, that will help answer the problem formulation (Bryman 2012: 579). This is where codes should come together, since the analysis is to be moved from particular to general (McCracken quoted in Bryman, 2012: 580). In the transcript of the interview with Guldsmeden Hotel’s representatives, we distinguished the following themes and subthemes:

● Incentives for performing socially and environmentally responsible activities ● Obstacles for performing socially and environmentally responsible activities ● Implementation of such initiatives and strategies

● Value perception/definition for the company: ○ social value

○ environmental value ○ financial value

These different themes were then assigned different colour codes, and subsequently highlighted in the transcripts, so we got a complete overview of the most relevant statements given by our informants. This also served to challenge our possible individual biases, as we would have to argue

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15 that a specific statement did in fact provide is with relevant information in correlation with the specific theme.

The “verification” stage has been dealt with by being critical in our analysis towards the reliability of the data that the interviewees provide us, especially regarding their subjective opinions and feelings. Last comes reporting, which comprises the analysis of the interview based on the chosen themes, as well as highlighting the main findings, which we will do in the analysis in chapter 6.

Expanding upon the data collected through the interviews, we have chosen to include data from the Sustainability Management Plan from Guldsmeden Hotels11. Following the method for case study design proposed by Yin, the case study is constructed to help us answer our problem formulation (Yin, 1994: 28), and shed light on the experiences of implementing environmental and socially responsible approaches in the hotel business.

We have chosen to conduct this case study, because there is a lack of data to support the claims proposed by Porter and Kramer that CSV can bridge the gap between profit maximization and ethical business conduct. In the terminology of Yin, this case is to a high degree critical in nature (Yin, 1994: 47), as it serves to challenge the theory of CSV and the “theory’s propositions are correct or whether some alternative set of explanations might be more relevant” (Yin, 1994: 47). While it does seem premature to refer to the case as being unique (Yin, 1994: 47), the hotel chain is markedly different from other hotels, as the socially and environmentally responsible approach has been an element from the start of the business.

Therefore the aim has been to focus on one franchise solely, and to work in depth with our findings with regards to their business. Had we chosen another hotel, we would have undoubtedly reached different conclusions. The relatively small size of the Guldsmeden hotel chain, in comparison with for example the larger hotel chains like Scandic or Intercontinental, who have also undertaken a variety of different social and environmental initiatives, does however provide us with a fairly concentrated

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The latest one, for 2012, can be found in the following link:

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16 pool of data, that facilitates an in-depth examination of our case. While there are differences among the different hotels in the Guldsmeden chain, they are all of fairly small size, and do resemble each other closely, making comparisons between the different components of the chain easier.

The secondary data is mainly collected from desk research on the Internet, as well as from Roskilde University's library database. This secondary data is composed of professional and scholarly articles or reports, to gain theoretical knowledge of the topic, as well as annual/sustainability reports, company website and other company-related communications, to measure and evaluate both the economical and societal impact of implementing different initiatives such as Creating Shared Value (CSV) and Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR). This data used in the research will be more qualitative than quantitative, so as to understand the processes of value creation involved in the different concepts. At the same time, a section to analyse the economic impacts both from the company's and the community's point of view will necessarily have a strong quantitative support. The task of enquiry is mainly explorative, to “understand the phenomenon and shed light on the complex situation” (Bitsch and Pedersen, 2011: 186).

While the qualitative data gathered from the interview sheds light on the motivations, obstacles and value creation of the hotels implementation of social and environmental initiatives, we have also chosen to include the consumer perception of the hotel and their actions. As the consumers play a vital part in keeping the hotel profitable, their views and perceptions of the hotels initiatives, are important to ensure the long term success of these initiatives. However, we have chosen not to conduct surveys, given the limited time and resource at our disposal. Instead, we use secondary data obtained from the website Tripadvisor (www.tripadvisor.com). This allows us to obtain data from more informants than would otherwise have been possible12, as well as it limits the risk of having less than truthful replies, as it is our assessment that the informants are more inclined to be frank when communicating to other possible guests, than to us as researchers. We have divided the informants into five categories: Those that gave the hotel a rating of 5 stars, those that gave the hotel a rating of 4 stars, and so on, down to the informants that gave the hotel a rating of 1 star. We have then read

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17 the reviews, and quantified how many informants in each category mentioned the hotels approach to sustainability as positive, negative, and how many informants there were who did not mention sustainability at all in there review. Likewise we have done the same with regards to the social initiatives of the hotel.

This helps us to assess how sustainability and social initiatives adds value to the consumer perception of the hotel.

1.8. Validity and reliability

Having chosen the perspectivist angle for the research entails analysing different contexts of shared value creation at the micro-level13, which in their own way is unique. This is also why we have chosen to select a single case company, to allow us in the time available to us, to obtain a deeper understanding of the case, in order to see the potential of CSV to give to the company a growth in profitability and total value creation. In other words, for this project, external validity is no longer a matter of statistical consistency of results, or of being able to replicate this project’s results if other cases would be analysed, neither of a generalization of the findings. It is rather a matter of working with the internal validity so that the individual findings are the mirror reality as close as possible (Bitsch & Pedersen, 2011: 186).

At the same time, we are aware that the internal validity can easily be affected by mistakes made in the way of analysing the collected data. For this reason, to assure a valid data analysis, some steps will be taken: making sure that the interpretation stands on a good theoretical back-up; being critical to our own approach to the analysis; and checking/discovering validity issues along the way in the report by doing partial conclusions and reflections on the findings, which allow seeing whether the sub-question has been answered.

The reliability and validity are also dependent on the data collected itself. In that respect, we are aware that because of the limited available data about concepts like CSV or Blended Value, we might

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18 become dependent on the primary authors’ points of view. Furthermore, the informants from Guldsmeden hotel can, to some extent, be reluctant to fully and honestly disclose data about their implementation of CSR/CSV, especially in the case of negative experiences. Similarly, as it is a commercial enterprise they are interested in showing the best impression of the chain on their website. The fact that the company is subject to continuous third party auditing through Green Globe and the Danish ministry of food and agriculture, does however limit the risk of using data that is not correct.

It is difficult to account for the reliability of our secondary data from Tripadvisor, as there might be a range of factors that determine whether or not a certain guest decides to write a review or not. Firstly it requires the guest to invest at least some time and effort into writing the review, and secondly, as it is a digital medium, some customers might be less inclined to use it than others. There were 628 reviews of hotel Axel on the website, at the time of our analysis, and some of these were not written in English, which means we have had to disregard those. It is unlikely that these reviews are representative for the attitudes of all the customers at hotel Axel (One of the Guldsmeden Hotels in Copenhagen). But as the aim was first and foremost to see how social and environmental initiatives add perceived value to the hotel and its customers, we have used the data accordingly, and not, for example, as a representation of how many of the customers at the hotel were satisfied with their stay.

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2. Guldsmeden Hotels – Company Description

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The business of Guldsmeden Hotels started in 1999, when Sandra and Marc Weinert opened the first hotel in Århus, which included 15 rooms in total. The name “Guldsmeden” (“dragon fly”) comes from the street where the first hotel was opened, Guldsmedgade. It encompasses 7 properties in total: 4 hotels in Copenhagen, 1 hotel in Aarhus, 1 hotel in Oslo, 1 villa in France, plus a rented villa in Bali, with approximately 100 employees.

Besides adopting a Bali style in the design of all its hotels, the hotel group entered the eco-tourism industry right from its establishment, by operating with “dedicated guidelines within sustainability and ecology”. On one hand, the four Guldsmeden hotels in Denmark are the only ones that have attained the Green Globe certification for sustainable tourism in the country. Green Globe audits its members once a year, and demands a 5% improvement on a given area. On the other hand, all Guldsmeden hotels have achieved the official Danish Gold Ø-label, signifying above 90% organic food – actual percentage is approximately 98%, as the company informs.

Even though a small hotel chain, the Guldsmeden Hotels pursue to integrate sustainability in all the activities of their business. Their initiatives range from rehabilitating the building by using as much of its initial structure as possible to reduce waste; reducing energy and water use; reducing food waste through their programme called “Love food, hate waste”; using renewable resources and materials; working only with suppliers who are organic and/or fair trade; using eco-friendly products in their services, etc.

The hotel group aims for being part of the higher class of hotels that does not compete on price but rather through its selective design and business concept.

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Information retrieved from the company’s website (www.guldsmedenhotels.com), as well as from the interview conducted with the hotel’s director, Sandra Weinart, and Marketing and PR coordinator, Kirsten Aggerborg (see Appendix 1 for full transcripts of the interview).

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Roskilde

University

Semester Project

Fall 2013

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3. What is value and how measurable is it?

As mentioned before, the concept of value is not just a very abstract one and difficult to define, but also one that is difficult to categorize as it is very situational dependent. Therefore, in order to be able to have a broad enough understanding of the overall value returns a company can attain through CSV initiatives, we find it also relevant to look into what does the concept of value entails in different contexts, as well as how can a company account or measure its total value creation.

As defined by The English Oxford Dictionary, value is “the importance, worth or usefulness of something”15. The concept of value has led, and is indeed the basis of, some of our oldest philosophical discussions, and value, or lack thereof, has an enormous impact on the daily lives of every single person on the planet. For all the different discussions on the subject, the concept of value does however continue to be an elusive concept.

When answering the question of what value is, we can identify two different epistemological stances: absolutism and relativism. With an absolutist perspective, “values are fixed and universally valid for all times” (Prescott Johnson16), whereas a relativistic perspective considers values to “have no existence except as psychological and sociological facts, altering as individuals and societies undergo change” (Prescott Johnson). As the same author argues, there is a growing tendency to consider value to be relative since it is personal and subjective, but at the same time we have created benchmarks such as money, to be able to give a value to objects.

Another division can be drawn between tangible and intangible value. Tangible values are something you can touch or measure, and therefore compare, such as physical assets with monetary value, whilst intangible values are more abstract, such as ideas, knowledge and innovation. We can divide value into many categories, and value can signify completely different things for different people. When looking at a case study such as ours, there are many stakeholders that have entirely different

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http://www.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/english/value?q=value

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22 ideas of what value can be said to be, such as the government, company shareholders or the customers.

Given these difficulties in defining the concept of value, we have chosen to delineate three different types of value: social, environmental and financial value.

These three categories function as working tools, but will always be abstractions, that are the result of the human construction, in this event, ours. In reality though, these three concepts are inherently intertwined, to such a point that they cannot be separated without some loss of meaning. An example might help illustrate this point: the cement production in a limestone quarry vastly pollutes the air and the nature around, thus negatively impacting the environment. Subsequently, it also affects the health of the people living close to the polluted area.

Any construction will have deficiencies when used to explain real life phenomena. Likewise others have tried to explain environmental value as a subset of social value, and others yet have tried to give social and environmental value a concrete monetary value (Wood and Leighton, 2010). The difficulties in examining a problem area with such complex interdependence will be the plight of any researcher examining the field. It does however seem apparent that if any sense is to be made of the concept, a division is necessary. The role of the researcher is then to minimize the degree to which the categories overlap, and to be aware that these categories are constructions, and should not be mistaken for the un-manipulated reality. These categories are however the most fitting illustration we can construct.

In the following chapter we will outline our interpretation of the three categories: social, environmental and financial value, which will be further taken on when analysing the case of Guldsmeden Hotel.

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3.1. Social Value

Social value has “no single authoritative definition” and “refers to wider non-financial impacts of programmes, organisations and interventions, including the well-being of individuals and communities” (Wood and Leighton, 2010). We define social value as any impact that directly influences the living standards, opportunities and general wellbeing of humans.

Social value is mostly intangible, and is difficult to define because there are differences in opinion as to what the concept entails amongst different people. It is very dependent on a range of variables such as geographical position, culture, wealth of the community etc. Furthermore, it can depend on personal interests and priorities. This distinction is the basis for any democracy, as people are prompted to vote for the representatives that they feel can translate their values and wishes to concrete political reality.

As social value is such an arbitrary concept, it is necessary to define in which ways it is reasonable to asses that a given firm can have an impact. This structure is also in accordance with Porter and Kramer’s proposed structure for choosing CSV activities based on the possibilities of the individual initiative to provide a social impact (Porter and Kramer, 2011: 15; Wood and Leighton, 2010: 10), as it would help to delineate which areas a given firm might be able to achieve the highest possible social impact.

In reference to our case study, it might, for instance, be more relevant to discuss how Axel Guldsmeden might impact the local community of Vesterbro, than, for example, the illegal trade of blood diamonds from Africa.

In a recent report, Neumark et. al. (2012: 12) developed a range of parameters that were used to define the social impact of stores in the retail industry, mostly focused on their opportunities to strengthen relationships between citizens of local communities. Inspired by the Carbon Footprint, a way to define metrics for individuals and companies impact on the environment, they coined this approach, the Community Footprint. This approach is grounded in the possibilities and limitations of

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24 the industry, and serves as a roadmap for how we might conceive the ways in which retailers can impact society.

Using this as the starting point, we will later return to the question of whether these areas for opportune social impact can be generalized to the hospitality industry in general.

3.2. Environmental value

“All business, all economies, all living and man-made systems depend on nature”

(Larkin, 2013: 4) Like social value, environmental value is a difficult concept to define. While we are now experiencing some of the direct effects of climate change, such as an increase in severe storms, flooding and warmer temperatures, it is difficult, if not impossible, to establish a link between individual actions, and the continuation of global environmental issues. The scale is so grand that, while we as individuals are learning to be environmentally responsible, it is difficult to make the effects of our individual actions tangible.

When dealing with environmental value, it is necessary to distinguish between initiatives that lessen the negative environmental impact of a given action, and initiatives that have a positive environmental impact. Staying in a hotel will inevitably put a strain on the environment, no matter how eco-friendly the given establishment is, as at least some energy and water usage is required for the hotel to be functional. Energy usage is an inherent consequence of doing business, and indeed living anywhere in the developed world.

The same intangibility applies to the actions of firms. Take the example of CO2 emissions: while the scale might be relatively larger, when looking at the CO2 emissions of private enterprises compared to individuals, the amount of CO2 released in the atmosphere globally is so mind-bogglingly huge, that the impact of a given firm is difficult to define precisely. But there is an impact nonetheless, and defining the criteria for what can be said to be environmental value is an important first step. We define environmental value as a derivative of any impact that directly influences all living and non-living things on earth, excluding humans (as that becomes social value).

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25 As the actions of a given firm have an impact for stakeholders globally, the backlash of not being environmentally responsible is not confined to the single firm in question. “No industry is local anymore *…+ And as important, no industry impact is limited to its present-day activities” (Larkin, 2013: 12).

Changing the scope from global issues of global warming, to national and local environmental issues can however help to reconceive our own individual role in the preservation of our environment, and likewise the possible impact of a given firm.

There are some inherent difficulties in assessing the impact of our case study in the different arenas of sustainability (global/local impact), but as the aim of our analysis is to identify the ways in which the initiatives add value to their value chain, we will primarily focus on the initiatives that directly influences the value chain of Guldsmeden Hotels. It is however important to emphasize that Guldsmeden Hotels do not assert any real control on the environment they are working in, as there are so many other actors whose actions they have no control over, and whom might have a negative environmental impact, that influences the value chain of Guldsmeden Hotels as well.

Therefore, using the same approach as detailed in the paragraph regarding social value, we will primarily go into depth with their current initiatives, and the areas where Guldsmeden Hotels can be said to realistically be able to assert an influence on their environmental impact. Using the example from before, Guldsmeden Hotel’s has as little influence on, for example preservation of the Californian red wood trees, as they have on the trade in blood diamonds. While the effects of their actions are not limited to their own business, it remains to be seen whether their positive impact generates added value for their business.

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3.3. Financial Value

Financial value is, like all other aspects of value, dependent on the point of view. Financial value has different meanings for different stakeholders, such as the buyer and the seller in a transaction. For the buyer, financial value is first and foremost the price that is sacrificed to obtain a certain product or service with a perceived higher value for the buyer, but other factors apply as well: “Time costs, search costs, and psychic costs all enter either explicitly or implicitly into the consumer's perception of sacrifice. If consumers cannot find products on the shelf, or if they must travel distances to buy them, a sacrifice has been made. If consumers must expend effort to assemble durable products or time to prepare packaged goods, and if this time and effort does not provide satisfaction to the consumer in the form of recreation or a hobby, a sacrifice has been made.” (Zeithaml, 1988: 11)

The events leading to a transaction are far more complicated than a mere objective comparison between sacrificed price and obtained value. As Zetihaml emphasises, the given quality of a given product is based on the perception of the consumer, and not the objective quality of the product (if such a thing even exists) (Zeithaml, 1988: 5). This perceived quality is constructed through a range of tangible and intangible, or intrinsic and extrinsic, in the terminology of Zeithaml, clues that guide the consumer. Intrinsic clues are the physical components that are inseparable from the product itself, without which the product would be altered.

In the case of a hotel room, such clues might be the quality of the furniture, size of the room, etc. Extrinsic clues are the properties that add further value to a given product. This might include clues such as, brand, logo, price and advertisement (Zeithaml, 1988: 6). In the figure below, the different elements that comprise the abstractions of the consumer that predates a purchase are illustrated:

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27 Figure 2: A means-end model, relating price, quality and value (Larkin, 1988)

For the seller of goods and services much of the same applies. Apart from the monetary sacrifice involved in manufacturing a certain good, there are a range of other sacrifices that are incurred in running a business, including wages for employees, taxes, fees, dividend on loans etc. While some of these costs can be leveraged through efficient management, other factors, such as taxes, lie wholly outside the control of given firm.

Therefore the task of any profit-orientated manager is to ensure that the product has a high enough perceived value, that consumers are prompted to engage in a transaction.

But how do environmental and social initiatives add value when applying Zeithaml’s figure? Firstly initiatives which are financially self-sustaining in the long term (such as efficient energy usage) obviously widens the gap between the financial sacrifice of Guldsmeden Hotels and the financial sacrifice of the consumers, increasing the profit margins. Secondly, it does however seem likely that such initiatives might also increase the perceived value of the service itself, further increasing profit margins. This is however entirely dependent on the consumers, and as Zeithaml emphasizes,

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28 “Managers' views [on what is important to consumers] may differ considerably from consumers' or users' views” (Zeithaml, 1988: 5).

In the analysis we will look deeper into how Guldsmeden Hotels use social and environmental initiatives to add value to their business.

3.4. Measuring Value

While defining the concept of value might be perceived as a difficult mission, measuring different types of corporate value returns that are of a qualitative nature is seen as a “daunting task” (Chen and Delmas, 2010:3). The reason comes from the fact that “it covers a broad range of economic, social, and environmental impacts caused by business operations and thus requires multiple metrics to fully cover its scope” (Gond and Crane, 2010).

Importance of measuring corporate overall performance

Many scholars and managers would claim that companies should not focus on increasing and/or measuring their societal/environmental impact at all, but rather focus solely on their main goal - profit maximization: “a corporation’s social responsibility is to make a profit” (Milton Freedman, 1962/1970); “the only responsibility of a business is to its shareholders” (Locke, 1996). However, John Elkington (1997) challenges these views by arguing that accounting for the non-economic value returns actually improves the social and environmental performance of the company17, which subsequently increases its profitability. Moreover, he points out that a company should not simply be responsible towards society and environment, but also try to improve its social and environmental bottom lines. Pfitzer, Bockstette and Stamp, (2013:5) develop this idea further by stating that “companies seeking to deliver scalable social and business benefits need to be able to monitor their progress”. Whether or not there actually exists a link between the corporate social performance (CSP) and the corporate financial performance (CFP) has been the subject of countless and continuing

17

From the principle that what you measure is what you get, because what you measure is what you are likely to pay attention to (The Economist- http://www.economist.com/node/14301663)

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29 debates: Freedman & Jaggi (1982), McGuire, Sundgren, Schneeweis (1988), Waddock and Graves (1994), Orlitzky, Schmidt, Rynes (2003), just to name a few. Griffin & Mahon (1997) came to the conclusion that “no definitive consensus exists” because of the variations of methodology, industries, control variables, stakeholder groups, and measures of both CSP and CFP that were used in those researches.

Nevertheless, there has in recent years been an increasing recognition of how externalities18 can inflict costs19 on the firms, and that by not accounting for them, companies disregard a potential for increased productivity, while also putting the firm at the risk of diminished value returns (Porter and Kramer, 2011: 8; Samuelson and Nordhaus, 1998).

Difficulties in measuring non-economical value

As discussed in the beginning of this chapter, there are “multiple dimensions of value” (Emerson, 2003: 41). Taking the social and environmental values in consideration, besides the financial ones, require a different language to quantify them, and therefore a great variety of metrics to be able to cover the full picture. Secondly, Norman and McDonald (2004) emphasize the idea that the non-economical dimensions (social and environmental) are difficult to measure, especially since some of them are of a rather qualitative, intangible nature. According to them, finding a common scale for all indicators, such as monetizing all three bottom lines, can be quite a challenge, considering how problematic it can be to calculate, for example, the currency value of company reputation, employee motivation, the value in time of a planted forest, or an accidental oil spill in the sea at a large-scale. Moreover, it is not only difficult to put in a succinct shape (such as number) the worth of some value return, but also to actually make a calculation or total of all social or environmental values created by, f.ex Guldsmeden Hotel. Can the different values be compared and summed up together? These problems of measuring were also observed by many other researchers (Carroll, 1999; Graves and Waddock, 1994; Wokutch and McKinney 1991).

18

social costs raised by firms, that they do not have to bear

19

Such as wasted energy or resources, costly accidents, training of employees to compensate for insufficient educations and skills etc.

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30 Moreover, when referring to metrics, it is also necessary to consider a time-frame for the measurements. This can again be difficult to establish precisely in relation to social or environmental value creation, because the value created can change from year to year, and it might not be possible to predict a finite time frame for the firm’s impact. We could even ask ourselves if the impact ever stops to evolve in time, or is it in fact infinite. Estimating a long-term value impact and bringing it to present values can again be a delicate task because many variables can come into play to make initiatives that were at first thought to be positive, negative depending on the time frame applied. Furthermore, different stakeholders can have conflicting opinions with regards to when an indicator is evaluated as positive/negative, high/low, or more/less important. The situation seems to be very context dependent. As Chen & Delmas (2010:3) stated, “These types of approaches would seem appropriate when the weights are exogenously given. *…+ However, for managers who face a variety of stakeholder pressures, the choice of weights is more ambiguous”.

Having said this, can the social and environmental performance of Guldsmeden Hotels be measured at all?

Attempts at measuring non-economical value

Means of measuring financial performance have been well explored, defined and applied for decades, such as Return on Investment, Return on Sales etc, and many of these concepts are internationally acknowledged20. There have been many attempts to define metrics or frameworks for measuring social and environmental value returns: Triple Bottom Line (Elkington, 1997), Balance Scorecard (Kaplan, 1999), Social Return on Investment or Blended Value Framework (Emerson et all, 1996/2000), Dow Jones Sustainability World Index, ISO standards, Global Reporting Initiative (GRI), Sustainability Accounting Standards Board, International Integrated Reporting Council, Social Return on Investment (SROI) and many others.

20

The International Accounting Standards Board (IASB) managed a harmonization of the accounting principles through its International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) - http://www.ifrs.org/The-organisation/Pages/IFRS-Foundation-and-the-IASB.aspx

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31 Samuelson and Nordhaus suggest that the societal and environmental value of corporate initiatives can best be evaluated when both the costs and benefits that accrue to the business, and the positive and negative externalities that accrue to the broader community are taken into account (1998: 745). Pfitzer, Bockstette and Stamp, on the other hand, by observing the practices of major corporations, stated that “companies seeking to deliver scalable social and business benefits need to be able to monitor their progress”. In connection to that, they have suggested a process with different phases: estimating how a degree of social environmental change can benefit the company by increased sales or reduced costs; monitoring progress through the business plan and defined metrics; measuring the shared value produced (2013:5-7). Nonetheless, these attempts at defining an approach to monitor their progress are still on a very cursory basis, and do not give any concrete examples of what metrics should be used, how to differentiate them, and how they should be scaled.

No universal system has as of yet been developed, in a similar way that it happened with the financial value returns, though there exists many approaches to the concepts. These concepts are still being developed, some resting on a conceptual level, which does not yet provide concrete implementable solutions of how managers can integrate them into their business model. In the words of Dona Wood, “conceptual developments have not been systematically integrated with one another, but usually have been treated as free standing, implicitly competing ideas” (Wood, 1991). Jed Emerson further states that current metrics are insufficient to cover all three types of value simply because people have not committed themselves enough to create new words and numbers that would express what is desired to be measured (2003: 41). “The challenge of the future is that of building a new framework for a lexicon of valuation” (Emerson, 2003: 41).

Conclusion

“Businesses are not responsible for solving all social problems. They are, however, responsible for solving problems that they have caused, and they are responsible for helping to solve problems and social issues related to their business operations and interests. [….] Social responsibilities should be relevant to the firm’s interests, operations and actions” (Wood, 1991). This in a way highlights the role of top managers, and their responsibility to link the goal of maximizing the shared value creation with

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32 the need to track and measure the performance and to integrate this need into the business practices.

With reference to the creating shared values, we can make the distinction between: financial value which we see as economic/monetary value for the company, environmental value which encompasses the impact on all living and non-living things on Earth apart from humans, and lastly, the social value, which looks at the life of humans. Even though we make this distinction, it seems that often the social and environmental impacts of a company are intertwined. However difficult it may seem, companies should try to define some indicators relevant for their activities.

As we can see, finding metrics for the intangible societal and environmental impacts still poses a challenge for businesses. While the CO2 emissions of a factory can be measured, the degree of influence that these emissions have upon Earth’s global warming is rather difficult to be estimated. However, we argue that measuring the corporate social performance should not be abandoned by Guldsmeden Hotels just because of that. There are plenty of tangible value returns that are rather straight-forward: kg/tons of reduced waste, percentage of reduced energy consumption, number of children cured of some disease etc. Even though these might not be able to provide an overall view of the value created by the company, it can still account for the hotel’s performance in terms of society and environment. This can further help in reducing costs, increasing efficiency, productivity, competitiveness. A more detailed suggestion of how this measurement can be applied at Guldsmeden Hotels through an SROI analysis will be given in chapter 8, after the chosen case will be analysed.

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33

Roskilde

University

Semester Project

Fall 2013

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What is CSV and how did the concept

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4. What is CSV and how did the concept develop?

Having now looked at value in general, we can now proceed to delving deeper into the concept of Creating Shared Value in order to get a background of what the concept entails, of how it developed and its similarity or not to the CSR concept.

The multitude of different approaches to Social Responsibility (SR) in business, and particularly the work of Jed Emerson concerning the concept of “Blended Value”21 can be seen as a precursor for the work of Michael Porter and Mark Kramer. The two Harvard professors were the first to coin the term “strategic CSR” (2006), which they further developed into the idea of “Creating Shared Value” (2011). In the words of Porter and Kramer, CSV promises to “reinvent capitalism – and unleash a wave of innovation and growth”.

“Shared value is a management strategy focused on companies creating measurable business value by identifying and addressing social problems that intersect with their business. The shared value framework creates new opportunities for companies, civil society organizations, and governments to leverage the power of market-based competition in addressing social problems.” (FSG22)

What the authors of the article suggest is what they call “a new way to achieve economic success”, “a way to create economic value while also creating value for the community (by addressing their needs and challenges)” (Porter and Kramer, 2011: 4).

The starting point for Porter and Kramer were their observations that businesses have in recent years adopted a short-term view on value creation - looking to create immediate profits for shareholders. As a result of this, some of the most critical needs of society today, for example poverty, malnutrition, poor access to medicine and treatment, pollution etc, are neglected as firms do not see an immediate

21

“Blended Value is simply a conceptual framework for advancing a vision of value creation which is not based upon a bifurcated understanding of the nature of value (either/or), but rather a unified, holistic understanding of value as “both/and,” integrated and non-divisible.” (Emerson). http://www.blendedvalue.org/framework/

22

http://sharedvalue.org/about-shared-value, FSG (Foundation Strategy Group), a non-profit consulting firm specializing in strategy, evaluation, and research ,founded by Porter and Kramer

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35 financial benefit of addressing these issues (Porter and Kramer, 2011: 4). Furthermore, Porter and Kramer suggest that companies can even grow at the cost of society, by overlooking the externalities incurred in running their business. In essence it is possible for companies to subtract more value from society than is given back through the provision of jobs, and paying taxes, even though they comply with all the laws and regulations set by society. This creates a social and environmental deficit that is not sustainable, as a healthy society needs successful companies and vice versa (Porter and Kramer, 2006: 9-10). Because of this interdependence between the society and business, they argue that “without a careful process for identifying evolving social effects of tomorrow, firms may risk their own survival”. A need arises for companies to account also for their social and environmental impact. While the idea of firm’s addressing societal and environmental problems that face society and the world as whole, is not new, there is a degree of novelty to the concept. Unlike previous approaches to SR that have mainly revolved around philanthropic initiatives that are a direct cost for a given firm (Porter and Kramer, 2006: 9), the CSV strategy dictates that SR initiatives should be seen as investments. While philanthropic initiatives, advocated amongst other by Carroll (1979), can to some extent provide reciprocal value through heightened goodwill amongst consumers, and act as a defence towards negative backlash of not being socially responsible, these effects are very indirect. Also, as there is no sure way of ensuring that the philanthropic initiatives will result in higher consumer awareness, brand value or consumer loyalty, there still exists the very real risk that these initiatives will ultimately bring less value for the firm than is being invested. The lack of assurance that these philanthropic initiatives will translate into a direct business benefit can ultimately mean that, “CSR programs [are] on shaky ground, liable to be dislodged by a change of management or a swing in the business cycle” (Porter and Kramer, 2006: 9).

Apart from the argument that a good reputation generated through CSR activities might act as a defence towards negative consumer reception, Porter and Kramer refer to three main arguments in favour of CSR that are raised by the proponents of the concept. The other three are moral obligations, license to operate and sustainability (Porter and Kramer, 2006: 5).

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36 Every business needs a license to operate, which is a tacit or formal recognition from society or government that the actions of the business are not in conflict with society. Secondly, a business should be sustainable, in the sense that the needs of the present should not compromise the needs of future generations. Lastly, a business should adhere to their moral obligations, and strive to operate without violating the ethics of their stakeholders (Porter and Kramer, 2006: 6). While these arguments do provide us with an answer to how firms could be socially responsible, it does not provide an adequate answer to why they should choose to do so. Apart from the concept of reputation, these arguments do not add value to the firm’s aim of maximizing profits. While it might be in correlation with their moral and environmental obligations, a given firm might choose to cut their CO2 emissions, but as the benefit derived from this is so intangible, and only abstractly related to the firm’s possibilities to increase their profits, the increased cost related with doing so, rests on purely altruistic motivations.

We do acknowledge that CSR is much less a single concept, rather than it is a field of study, covering a multitude of different definitions, some of which seek to mend the schism between profitability and SR. But as the aim of this project has not been to map the many different approaches to CSV, we have chosen the definition put forward by Porter and Kramer, as it is this definition that they juxtapose their theory with. While it could be argued that they have an interest in depicting CSR in a negative way, the main point remains, that there is no decisive argument to conduct CSR, if one is only concerned with maximizing profits.

To make a differentiation between CSV and CSR, Porter and Kramer (2011: 16) have made of list of the main criteria that set the two concepts apart, which can be seen below. CSV differs from this approach, as the initiatives undertaken should be long-term profit-oriented, while still retaining the benefits of the philanthropic approach. Ensuring that SR initiative can be economically sustainable, however long term the prospects might be, risks and uncertainties can be diminished, which greatly increases the incentive for firms to be socially responsible.

Creating Shared Value: An Improved Social Responsibility Concept?

Roskilde

University

Semester Project

Fall 2013

[

CREATING SHARED VALUE

]

Table of Contents

1.

Abstract

1.

Introduction

1.1.

Problem area

1.2.

Purpose

1.3.

Problem formulation

1.4.

Interpretation

1.5.

Delimitations

1.6.

Philosophy of science

1.7.

Data collection/methods

1.8.

Validity and reliability

2.

Guldsmeden Hotels – Company Description

Roskilde

University

Semester Project

Fall 2013

3.

What is value and how measurable is it?

3.1.

Social Value

3.2.

Environmental value

3.3.

Financial Value

3.4.

Measuring Value

Roskilde

University

Semester Project

Fall 2013

[

What is CSV and how did the concept

4.

What is CSV and how did the concept develop?